As the world's population increases, the demand for energy has increased. Given that fossil fuels are a limited resource, businesses and individuals alike have increasingly turned to solar energy as a means for providing usable power. Solar roof panels have been used on roofs in the past in order to harness solar energy. These devices, however, struggle to become commercially successful.
Currently, solar panels consist of large, heavy and odd-sized items that are problematic to handle and install. The large size of a conventional solar panel makes it difficult to install, maintain and replace, as well as clean and move around. Because of the large size of conventional solar panels, the labor costs required to install and remove them are increased. Additionally, some conventional solar panels can be easily broken when a user walks on the panels. Another known problem with some conventional solar panels is that a flat roof is preferred. This requirement results in many residential roofs being unable to house a conventional solar panel, which limits the available solar panel options to the consumer.
Like any other industry, the solar panel industry and solar cell technology are constantly evolving. Because of the constant evolution of solar cell technology, the current solar cell and solar cell technology will eventually become obsolete when new solar cell technology become commercially available. As a result of this constant evolution, another problem with the large and bulky conventional solar panels is that as technology evolves, the entire conventional solar panels may need to be replaced if a consumer desires to upgrade to a more efficient solar cell. Again, this increases labor and installation costs.
An additional concern with conventional solar panel technology is that solar panels currently do not maximize use of roof space. Typically, solar panels are sold in a single large unit and cannot be adapted to each specific roof on which it is installed. As a result, much of the usable space on top of a roof goes unused, which is inefficient when trying to maximize the amount of solar energy that is to be harnessed.
A further problem with conventional solar panel technology is that today's solar panels must be engineered to be placed in the most efficient location on the roof. As briefly mentioned above, not all roofs are fit for a conventional solar panel. Physical measurements must be taken to account for the tilt and azimuth of the solar panel and how they relate to the position of the sun, in order to increase their efficiency. Also, shadowing conditions on the roof must be taken into account, since shadows on the solar panels decrease the efficiency of a solar panel.
As a result, there exists a need for improvements over the prior art and more particularly for a more efficient way of harnessing solar energy using solar cells.